Friday, September 29, 2017

I always look forward to seeing delicata squash appear in
the Fall, but with that comes a certain amount of frustration, since I’m pretty
sure there are plenty of shoppers who walk right past it, thinking it’s some
sort of decorative gourd. They do look like those ornamental cornucopia
fillers, which is why I’ve been tempted to walk up to people at the market, who
I’ve seen look at these, but not put in their basket, and tell them what a big
mistake they’re making. Of course I haven't, since that’s just not done.

The point is, not only would these dress up any holiday table, but they're also absolutely delicious, uniquely textured, and easy
to prepare; as long as you don’t cut off a finger. Much like our friend the
butternut squash, these are very hard, and you have to be extremely careful
when cutting. I think the technique shown herein is a pretty safe
way to go, since your fingers are well away from the blade.

Once prepped, season to your liking, with salt and
oil being the only mandatory ingredients, and then roast in a hot oven, until
tender, and as caramelized as you like. I usually don’t flip halfway
through, since I’d rather have one really crusty side, than two sort of crusty
sides. Once baked, these can be served hot as a side dish, room temperature as a snack, or cold in a salad. Regardless of how you enjoy them, I hope you give these roasted delicata squash a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 2 portions:

1 large delicata squash

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

cayenne pepper to taste

- Roast at 450 F., for about 12 to 18 minutes, depending on
how thick your slices are.

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

If you watched our recent spaetzle video, you saw me serve
up a nice hunk of cider braised pork shoulder, during which I wondered out loud
if we’d done that video yet. Turns out that we hadn’t, so as promised, here you
go.

As the title may indicate, this isn’t technically a braised
dish, since the meat is pretty much covered with cooking liquid, but whenever I
have to choose between alliteration, and accuracy, I predominantly pick the
former.

I kept things very simple here, so feel free to add extras
like carrots, potatoes, Brussels sprouts, and other fall veggies, if you like.
There’s really no way to screw up a dish like this. Unless, of course, you stop
cooking it before it’s done. I’ll never understand recipe reviewers complaining
that the meat in a dish like this, never got tender.

Tough meat always gets tender, if you cook it long enough. Always.
The problem is, people go by the times given, which may or may not be long
enough. No matter what a recipe says, always continue cooking until it’s fork
tender, and can be easily broken apart.So, with that in mind, whether you’re topping spaetzle or not, I really
do hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Tooth, that is. I have a cracked wisdom tooth
that needs some attention, and so I’m not exactly sure when I’ll be able to
finish the voice over for today’s recipe. I ended up filming the cider-braised
pork you may have seen in the spaetzle video, and look forward to posting it
soon. Stay tuned!

Friday, September 22, 2017

Apparently “Spätzle” translates to “little sparrows” in
German, which makes a lot of sense when you consider their shape. What doesn’t
make sense is why these micro-dumplings are also called “spaetzle.” Is it an
alternate spelling? A different recipe? I’m hoping maybe some of our German
foodwishers can clear this up.

Since my favorite German restaurant calls this stuff spätzle,
that’s what I went with, and they are as easy to make, as they are hard to
correctly pronounce. You only need a few ingredients, all of which you
generally have on hand at all times, and they take just minutes to cook.

Once boiled, you can toss in butter like I did, or sauce them
any way you’d sauce similarly shaped pasta. While wonderful served as-is, they
make the perfect side dish to any large hunk of slowly braised meat. I paired
mine with a pork shoulder stewed in hard cider, and it was amazing.

I thought I’d posted a video for that, but it was actually a
cider-braised pork cheeks recipe I was thinking of, which would work perfectly
here. So, I may have to do a braised pork shoulder after all. In the meantime,
I’m sure you’ll have little trouble figuring out what to serve yours with, and
I really do hope you give this Spätzle recipe a try soon. Enjoy!

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

This biscotti video is another installment in our
long-running series, “Recipes I Can’t Believe I Haven’t Posted Yet.” But, while
I took my sweet time recording this classic Italian dipping cookie, at least I
picked a good time to finally feature it, since winter is coming, and with it,
plenty of cookie-appropriate occasions.

I decided to go with a very straightforward version, since
that’s my personal favorite, but that doesn’t mean you can’t jazz these up in
any number of ways.Different nuts, like
hazelnut and/or pistachio work beautifully in these, as does any type of dried
fruit. And of course, dipping these in dark chocolate is never a bad idea.

By the way, don’t let that cup of sugar fool you. These are not
particularly sweet cookies, and there’s a good reason for that. Traditionally,
these are served to dip into sweet dessert wines, like Vin Santo, which is why
we don’t want them too sugary to begin with. That’s also the reason why we
really do want these crunchy all the way through.

I was pretty noncommittal with the cooking time once these
are sliced and put back in the oven, since depending on the size and shape,
your baking times will vary greatly. The best plan is to keep peaking at them
once they get close, and wait for that perfect golden brown. So, with my
apologies for bringing up the holidays so early, I’ll finish by saying I really
do hope you give these almond biscotti a try soon. Enjoy!

Friday, September 15, 2017

I worked at a Mexican restaurant while in college, and one
of my least favorite tasks was frying the flour tortilla bowls. You had to hold
the two parts of the basket that formed them together while they fried, all the
while getting splattered by hot fat, and breathing grease vapors. It wasn’t
fun, but they did come out nice and crispy, so to everyone else involved, it
was totally worth it.

Here, we’re using the oven to achieve what I consider a
superior product. They’re just as beautiful, and crispy as the ones from the
deep fryer, but seem to be much less greasy. Not to mention, the mess is
significantly less. I’ll trade those things for a few extra minutes production
time any day.

Just be careful not to burn them trying to get the inside
bottom crispy. Since that area is protected from the sides, it’s not going to
get as browned, but it doesn’t have to. As soon as this is filled, no one will
know the difference. Speaking of filling, deciding that is probably the hardest
part of this whole operation, but I’m confident you’ll come up with something
worthy. I really hope you give these a try soon. Enjoy!

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Whenever I’m ordering something with chicken at a taqueria,
I’m always presented with the same three choices. The grilled chicken, the
green chicken, which is cooked in a tomatillo sauce, and the red chicken, also
know as chicken tinga.

I usually forgo the grilled option, since whatever I’m
ordering almost always benefits from sauce; which leaves me with the nearly
impossible decision of choosing between the red and the green. I love both, so
I’m always torn. By the way, in Mexican culinary lingo, tinga means, “torn.”

Anyway, now that the title makes sense, I can finish this
post up by reiterating how great this came out. There are faster methods to
make this, but taking the extra time to reduce the cooking liquid, as well as
possibly the sauce, really pays off in the end.

The real challenge here is deciding how to use it. You can’t
go wrong with tacos, but my favorite delivery system is tostados. Fry up a corn
or flour tortilla nice and crisp; top with tinga, and garnish with the usual
suspects. It doesn’t get any better than that…unless the tortilla is shaped
into a bowl, which I’ll show you how to do quickly, and mess-free, in the next
video. Until then, I really hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 6 large portions:

3 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs

3 cloves peeled whole garlic cloves

1 large yellow onion, halved

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste

4 cups chicken broth

1 cup water

1 can (7-oz) chipotle peppers in adobo sauce

1 can (28-oz) peeled plum tomatoes (I recommend using San
Marzano) or 3 1/2 cups of any fresh or canned tomato product

Friday, September 8, 2017

If too much sausage in a cheese dip was the biggest problem
you have during a workweek, you have to consider that to be a pretty great
week. They say, less is more, but I was hoping that twice the amount of chorizo
in this fundido would make it twice as good, but that wasn’t really the case.

The taste was great, and as I said in the video, I highly
doubt anyone at your party would complain, but what I really wanted was an
ooey, gooey, much drippier dip, and so in this case, less would have been more.

Below, I’ve listed the amounts as I think they should be,
with what I actually used in parentheses, and I’ll leave it up to you, to
adjust as you see fit. Besides the sausage amount, I think adding some sour
cream may also help the cause. Are you ready for some football? I am, but even
if you’re not going to serve this chorizo fundido to a bunch of screaming
lunatics on game day, I still hope you give it a try soon. Enjoy!

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

You do not have to go to a place, to be inspired by their
food. In fact, it’s a lot cheaper, and easier if you don’t. So, as I stated in
the into, this Chilean sea bass San Sebastian is the result of a little
culinary mind game I play, where I try to invent a recipe that I think
could/would be served there, and this is one of those dishes.

I love the technique of spreading a flavored mayo, or aioli
over a piece of fish, before roasting it in a very hot oven. Not only does it keep
the seafood moist, we don’t have to worry about making a sauce when it’s done.
Another advantage is that by simply changing the seasoning of the sauce, we can
create countless variations.

This will work with any piece of fish you can cut into a
thick chunk, but Chilean sea bass is my favorite choice. By the way, that’s
just the name it’s commonly sold by. Its real name is the much less marketable
“Patagonian toothfish.” Mmm….toothfish. Due to past overfishing, much of it
illegal, Chilean sea bass has landed on lots of “do not eat this” lists, but there
are sustainable sources available.

I got mine from Markfoods.com, which is certified by the Marine
Stewardship Council (MSC), and the quality was top notch. This is not a
sponsored post, but in the spirit of full disclose, the fish seen herein was a
complimentary sample sent to me by my friend Kevin, who runs the operation.
Regardless, this was one of the best fish dishes I’ve had in a while, and I
really hope you give it a try soon. Enjoy!

Saturday, September 2, 2017

Welcome to part two in this series for how to make your own sourdough
bread, using nothing more than flour, water, a little salt, and a whole lot of
time.

Yes, making your own sourdough does take a while, but the amount of
actual work is minimal, and the bread you’ll get is spectacular…at least in San
Francisco. Your results may vary.

While I’ve made sourdough before, I’ve never actually had to
provide specific measurements, which is why I’ll credit Northwest Sourdough
once again, since the amounts below were slightly adapted from there. Speaking
of which, anything you’re not sure about after watching this, can be cleared up
by visiting Teresa’s amazing channel.

If you don’t have a banneton, you can simply line a similarly
sized bowl with a tightly woven cotton kitchen towel, which has been generously
coated with rice flour. I’ve used that before, and it works exactly the same.
The only difference is the wooden basket “breathes,” unlike a metal bowl, but I
don’t think that’s a huge deal.

Since the wild yeast and bacteria that make this bread work
vary from one part of the country/world to another, I can’t guarantee you’ll get
the same results I did, but nevertheless, I really do think you should try
anyway. In fact, if you do have some success, I’d love to see the results
posted on Twitter for all to see.Good
luck, and as always, enjoy!

Ingredients for one loaf:

100 grams starter

250 grams water

8 grams kosher salt

394 grams white bread flour

(You’ll also need rice flour for the 10-inch banneton)

- Let ferment for 4 hours, “folding” at the 2 hour mark

- Form loaf and transfer into prepped banneton

- “Retard” dough in fridge for 10-12 hours

- Let rise in warm spot for 3 to 5 hours or until it passes
“poke test”